Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe 'Clickers' boost college participation NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J., Sept. 14 (UPI) -- Students and professors at New Jersey's Rutgers University and other schools across the country are praising a classroom tool known as the "clicker." Advertisement Marketed as a high-tech "personal response device," the calculator-size clickers allow students to give multiple-choice answers to quizzes and take part in polling and student polling, the Philadelphia Daily News reported. Teachers can use them to take attendance. An estimated 2 million students in the United States are currently using clickers, which can cost $35-$40, the Daily News said. Neil Sheflin, an associate professor of economics at Rutgers, called clickers "the greatest educational innovation since chalk." Sheflin said his students also enjoy using them. "The majority find that it's a lot more fun and a lot more interesting and a lot less sleep-inducing," he said. Car thief foiled by wrong gas Advertisement RAMSGATE, England, Sept. 14 (UPI) -- A British court heard an automobile thief was arrested after he put gasoline into a stolen diesel-powered car. Police said Daniel Boxall, 27, of Ramsgate, England, was arrested June 12 along with passenger Richard Lloyd after the $20,000 Audi A4 broke down at the side of a road, This is Kent reported. Prosecutors said Boxall, who spent three months in jail awaiting trial, stole the keys to the car from a woman's jacket at a children's party. Boxall pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicle taking and driving with no insurance. He was given a suspended one-year jail term, as well as a 12-month supervision order and a nine-month drug rehabilitation order. He also was banned from driving for a year. Man cited for alleged chair toss WINONA, Minn., Sept. 14 (UPI) -- Police in Winona, Minn., said a man was cited for disorderly conduct after his neighbors snapped pictures of him throwing a chair onto their roof. Police Sgt. Gary Hoeppner said Phillip James Bronk, 57 -- who was convicted of disorderly conduct in January after a dispute with his neighbors about a pile of dirt -- threw the chair onto the roof twice Wednesday and was caught on film the second time, the Winona Daily News reported. Advertisement Hoeppner said Bronk told police he "set" the chair on the 10-foot-high roof, but it was clear from the photographs that the chair was thrown. Bronk also faces charges for allegedly peeping into his neighbors' window during the spring, police said. Hotel creates lunar cake for Aldrin LAS VEGAS, Sept. 14 (UPI) -- A Las Vegas hotel and casino said it created a 600-pound cake with a lunar lander replica in the center for astronaut Buzz Aldrin. Officials at the Luxor, which hosted "An Evening with Buzz Aldrin," said they closed the event Saturday by presenting the cake to the 80-year-old astronaut, who was the second man to walk on the moon, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. Luxor bosses said workers spent almost 600 hours crafting the cake and the process will be featured on an upcoming episode of TLC's "Fabulous Cakes." Aldrin noted the electric-powered "Earth" revolving around the huge cake was traveling in the wrong direction. "Small detail," he said. "Wrong way."
